do YOU have camera set to take sRGB or AdobeRGB?

While still playing with the set-up of my newish D7000, I picked up the thread directing one to Ken Rockwell's set up guide and was surprised he is pretty adamant camera should be set to sRGB & in turn directs to his fuller discussion sRGB vs. Adobe RGB

I have so far been among the possibly mis-led that thought the camera should be set to the 'best' ie Adobe RGB setting and any colour the hardware and software one uses can't handle would be discarded later.

I do always convert to sRGB for web use, but do notice that here, yes, all reductions from the originally posted size go dull and 'orrible (as is the case on pbase).

Likewise Ken's 'ramps' look as on the website in some software, but in Capture NX2, the cruddy Adobe RGB ramp is restored to look virtually identical to the sRGB

I do all my own printing on a cheapo printer (Canon ix4000) and, except when I could get the HP pro paper, I admit enormous difficulty in printing.

However, Ken does sometimes go off on tangents and as a full test out is going to take a while, I am wondering what you guys ACTUALLY have the camera set to and why?

It doesn't matter if you shoot in RAW. And if you have a camera that CAN shoot in RAW, you're crazy to shoot jpeg.

Mine's set to sRGB, but like I said, it doesn't matter.

Mine's set to AdobeRGB. I generally shoot in raw though, so not sure it really makes a difference.

*bump* said:

Mine's set to AdobeRGB. I generally shoot in raw though, so not sure it really makes a difference.

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You need to distinguish between picking up RAW ie NEF in Nikon Software (Capture NX2) which DOES assign a colour space to the editing environment, and non-Nikon software which ignores everything Nikon, bless their hearts, do to help us. When you change from Nikon Adobe to sRGB for web posting, you see the histogram literally having a comb running through it dropping some of the colours before re-settling.

I agree with Ettventer that you don't buy a serious camera then shoot jpg apart from maybe the 1st day if you are entirely new to DSLR

Please all the rest of you keep adding your info!!

It seems to be where the line is drawn between 'commercial printing' and other 'commercial print services' and 'some household printers' and others. Say Photobox in 1st category who produce pretty decent stuff and, well my A3 Canon ix4000 in the 2nd, which does include print profiles (even if they don't work, especially on Canon paper)

The D7000 manual (roughly corresponding to Ken):

"The sRGB color space is widely used, while the Adobe RGB color space is typically used in publishing and commercial printing. sRGB is recommended when taking photographs that will be printed without modification or viewed in applications that do not support color management, or when taking photographs that will be printed with ExifPrint, the direct printing option on some household printers, or kiosk printing or other commercial print services.

I have a cunning plan: as the comp this week is 'toy story', it is fairly easy to set the camera alternately to both and do some prints as well as posting to the comp http://nikonites.com/content/280-weekly-challenge-jan-25-feb-1-toy-story.html

Anyone else game?

I shoot RAW, Nikon Adobe RGB and open the files with Nikon Capture NX2 and perform any necessary edits (exposure, contrast, color, etc.). From there, depending upon final use, i.e. commercial CMYK printing, web publication, home printing, etc., I will transfer the image to Photoshop and save as a TIFF or JPEG appropriate for the medium that it will be used in.

LensWork said:

I shoot RAW, Nikon Adobe RGB and open the files with Nikon Capture NX2 and perform any necessary edits (exposure, contrast, color, etc.). From there, depending upon final use, i.e. commercial CMYK printing, web publication, home printing, etc., I will transfer the image to Photoshop and save as a TIFF or JPEG appropriate for the medium that it will be used in.

Click to expand...

Any reason for not converting to tiff etc straight from Capture? (I found after some messing about & consulting Nikon that Adjust>Colour profile should be done as the very last step if sRGB needed for web jpg)

I shoot sRGB, I shoot RAW 14bit lossless and use Lightroom for all my editing

crisscross said:

Any reason for not converting to tiff etc straight from Capture? (I found after some messing about & consulting Nikon that Adjust>Colour profile should be done as the very last step if sRGB needed for web jpg)

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When the image is transferred from NX2 to Photoshop it is opened within Photoshop as a TIFF.

I carried out a test from camera via forum reductions and to print (from minimally edited NEF in Capture NX2)
Results are at Toy story in different colour space - Nikonites Gallery and http://nikonites.com/weekly-photo-challenges/4601-weekly-challenge-jan-25-feb-1-toy-story-2.html
I won't say which for now; hopefully you can open 2 browser windows & get up full size 1200x800 and say what you find (tho i can't find a way of getting full size in challenge; no doubt more experienced forum users will)

Mine is set to sRGB, but not for Ken Rockwell's reason(s).

Ken Rockwell does not understand color management. His claim that he understands color management because he has a color management patent (which simply concerns hardware-based matrix multiplication) is like saying he understand the General Theory of Relativity because he understand what the "equals" means in "E equals M C squared".

I do understand color management. My patent is about color management. I was the lead test developer for Adobe's color management team for a number of years.

The point of using Adobe RGB in your camera is not to deliver images in Adobe RGB. It is to capture a wider gamut than possible with sRGB. Then, using color management software you adjust the range of colors in cropped part of your image to be what you want. Then you convert that image to a color space appropriate for your delivery medium, such as sRGB for electronic images, or the color profile associated with a particular printer.

The problem of using Adobe RGB is that after you adjust the range of colors, you have fewer than 256 colors per channel, which can lead to banding. You can compensate somewhat by downsampling a high resolution image into a lower resolution, but you still lose quality in one form or another.

Whenever possible, I shoot and process in RAW. That gives me much greater control over adjusting color ranges while preserving 256 colors per channel.

Sometimes in the field when I want to show a client some work (in progress) on my laptop (which does not have Photoshop), I will shoot in RAW+JPEG, so I can show the client that JPEG.

I would only shoot Adobe RGB JPEG if I could not shoot and process in RAW. Years ago, that would have been sometimes conceivable if I had to shoot thousands of images and didn't have enough space on my memory card. But with the larger capacity of memory cards these days, I don't shoot Adobe RGB JPEG any more.

Conclusion: Shoot in RAW. Set your camera's color profile to sRGB unless you are going to be delivering final product from the JPEG.

This is a very interesting thread and something I have mulled over several times. Just to be clear, when shooting in raw, does it make any difference which mode is selected, or do you just get the raw data. I alway shoot raw so that would work for me.

As a slight aside, I've just bought an iPad which imports raw straight of my D300s and displays them faster and better than any pc software/screen I've used. It is now my ideal review platform. My point being that raw is now easy to deal with.

For capturing images in your digital camera in RAW mode, it does not matter whether you select Adobe RGB versus sRGB. I believe RAW color is represented in XYZ color space. The XYZ color space can represent any possible color, as well as some colors we cannot see.

I use Photoshop in my workflow. My first step is to convert the RAW image to a working color space. It is during this step that I adjust color values such as Temperature, Exposure, Fill Light, and Saturation. This gives me colors I want, with 256 colors per channel. (You can follow Ken Rockwell's suggestions and just edit in JPEG, but you'll get a lot fewer colors per channel, which can lead to banding.)

Good to hear that about your iPad.

When I shoot JPG I use SRGB because I use Capture NX for my edditing. If I used my Adobe CS4 I would use Adobe RGB.
You could say the clue is in the name

westmill said:

When I shoot JPG I use SRGB because I use Capture NX for my edditing. If I used my Adobe CS4 I would use Adobe RGB.

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I don't understand your logic. Are you saying you prefer Adobe RGB as your source color space but Capture NX does not handle Adobe RGB, despite Nikon's advertising to the contrary? Or are you saying you don't understand color management?
Also, why do you ever​ shoot only JPG?

DavidForthoffer said:

I don't understand your logic. Are you saying you prefer Adobe RGB as your source color space but Capture NX does not handle Adobe RGB, despite Nikon's advertising to the contrary? Or are you saying you don't understand color management?
Also, why do you ever​ shoot only JPG?

Click to expand...

Sorry its me lol. I just got it backwards. I have the cameras set and just dont think about it lol.
Its RGB Ive set. Srgb is recomended for going straight to print basicly. When only little alterations are needed.
I was informed last night my mum is very ill, so you will have to forgive me for not thinking too straight at the mo.
I never said I only shoot JPG though ? I use whatever is better for the job at hand.

I pray your mum will get better.

If you think that sometimes shooting JPG is better for the job at hand, I suggest you always shoot RAW+JPG, since it may well turn out that RAW would have been better.

Thank you very much
I do have reasons for shooting JPG though at times.
Im well aware of the ability to shoot Raw and jpg at the same time. I personly have just never had a use for it though.

I have my camera set to sRGB as I save my JPEG files on an Eye-fi card for instant sharing. I also save the raw files on the second slot for backup and better editing ability.

Thank you all for further contributions, especially DavidForthoffer